AEM for Parents & Families: Answers

Someone in my family is really struggling with the materials and technologies used in her classes. Is there anything I can do to help her?

First of all, you’re in the right place to learn more. We’re a national technical assistance center that helps people interested in knowing more about accessible educational materials and technologies.

Sometimes, if a learner has difficulty with reading or using digital technologies for learning, a school or program may suggest accessible educational materials (AEM) and technologies. You and your learner can also start these conversations with the school or program yourselves if you feel AEM might help.

If your family member is in an early learning or K-12 environment, a good place to start is to talk to the teacher about your concerns. In higher education and workforce development situations, your family member may need to contact disability services or human resources to begin these conversations.

Either way, the best thing you can do to help is to learn more about AEM—what they are, how they’re used, what’s required by law, and where you can find them. We’re here to help answer those questions and more.

Resources to help get you started

What are AEM and accessible technologies? Why are they important?

AEM includes accessible educational materials and accessible technologies. You might also hear about AIM, or accessible instructional materials. Whatever they’re called, the basic idea is the same: any materials or technologies used in a classroom or other learning environment need to be usable by everyone. If we’re talking about print materials like books or worksheets, sometimes that means those materials have to be converted into specialized formats like braille, large print, audio or digital text. If we’re talking about digital materials like e-books or digital learning environments like Google Apps for Education, those materials and technologies need to be created and presented so that all learners can interact with them. In other words, materials and technologies used in any learning environment need to be accessible.

Accessibility is a simple concept that can be very complicated. For example, accessible materials and accessible technologies may mean one thing to a person who has a visual impairment and a very different thing to a person who has a hearing impairment. That’s why there are accessibility guidelines and regulations to let content creators, publishers, schools, organizations and institutions know what’s expected.

If you’d like to learn more about AEM and what it looks like, we have lots of resources you may find useful. The links below are a great start!

Learn the basics about AEM

Are there legal issues related to AEM that I should know about?

Depending on whether your family member is in early learning, K-12, higher education, or workforce development, different legal issues may be important.

For learners in K-12 education environments, IDEA requires that states and districts ensure timely provision of accessible materials to elementary and secondary students with disabilities who need them. This means that school districts must take reasonable steps to provide accessible materials to eligible students with disabilities without delay, typically at the same time as other students receive educational materials. For students who do not receive special education services under IDEA, the disability civil rights laws—Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—may require the provision of AEM. There are also copyright issues that may impact the sources that can be used to acquire AEM for your child.

If your family member is in post-secondary education or workforce development, there is a different process for acquiring accessible materials and technology. The higher education institution or employer has no obligation to seek out a person with disabilities and offer accommodations. The person with the disability, or sometimes an advocate, must go to the disability services or appropriate employment personnel services to self-identify and discuss what the needs are.

All of this can seem overwhelming, but don’t worry. We’re here to help you learn how AEM relates to all of these legal issues and what you need to know about each of them in order to help your family member.

Learn more about who needs AEM

Do you have any tools that can help make decisions about AEM?

We have two free interactive tools that can help you, your family member, and others make decisions about AEM: the AEM Navigator and the AIM Explorer.

The AEM Navigator is designed to help families and educators walk through the AEM decision-making process for print-based materials. It includes a 4-step guide to help make decisions about AEM for an individual learner. Guiding questions, rich resources, and helpful scaffolds are built-in to assist your team in making informed decisions about print-based materials. The AEM Navigator is also available in a print version.

The AIM Explorer simulates some of the features found in e-books, online programs, web browsers, and digital text. You can try out things like text magnification, different text and background colors, different layout options, and text-to-speech settings to see what works best for your family member when reading in a digital environment.

We hope you find these tools useful as you’re thinking about AEM for your family member. They’re also great tools to help start the conversation with schools, institutions, and organizations about AEM. Be sure to check them out!

If your family member meets the criteria for membership in Bookshare, Learning Ally, and/or American Printing House for the Blind (APH), major libraries of accessible reading materials, sign up for individual accounts to gain access to books to read for pleasure. Positive experiences with reading are so important for people who have struggled with it in the past, so the more exposure your family member can have to reading materials that are interesting, engaging, and usable, the more likely she is to have future success with more complex reading assignments. Start small, build on successes, and check out our AEM in Action stories to see others who have found success with AEM.

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The contents of this website were developed under a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Education, #H327Z140001. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Tara Courchaine, Ed.D.